Redeeming the Time: A People's History of the 1920s and the New Deal

Throughout his ""People's History,'' of which this 1232-page book is the eighth and final volume, Smith's passionate commitment to his country and its people has been movingly evident. This gifted historian succeeds brilliantly in revealing historic turns through their more dramatic and colorful momentsduring the 1920s, for instance, Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight, KKK lynchings, the Dempsey-Tunney fight, the Pullman Strike, the Scopes Monkey Trial, the Great Crash of 1929. He shows the country feeling its oats in the wake of the war that made the world ``safe for democracy.'' But Smith is more than a recording journalist. His multi-volume history makes clear the underlying strain of rebellion against oppression and injustice that has marked this country's people. While he laments the ``short memory'' of Americans, he delineates powerfully their ``redemptive'' virtues through the Great Depression, when F.D.R. implemented his vision of a federal government actively committed to the public welfare and ``social security.'' Smith views F. D. R.'s role as redeeming in the name of left-liberalism, but not American radicalism, which in the '30s was revolutionary. He does not applaud the erosion of liberalism since World War II, but seems to say democracy and compassion are in our blood, and the American vision of brotherhood has a fighting chance. Photos. 15,000 first printing; BOMC alternate. (October 27)